09.25.06
Posted in Tutoring, Cooperative Learning, independent readings, Annotated References - RDP readings at 1:11 pm by youngsah
Merrett, F. and Mottram, S. (1997) Do boys or girls make better reading tutors? An empirical study to examine children’s effectiveness as tutors using the pause, prompt and praise procedures. Educational Psychology 17(4):419-433.
This study looked at peer tutoring using the “pause, prompt, and praise” procedures. This is presented as an alternative to putting poorer readers in a separate class or giving them separate instruction from the teacher. Reading level was measured before and after tutoring to determine if tutoring had any effect. There were 24 tutor-tutee pairings. The sex of the tutor and the sex of the tutee were also examined to determine if one sex was a more effective tutor, better tutee, or whether there was some kind of interaction between tutor and tutee sex. Previous studies suggested that same sex tutoring would be most effective because members of the same sex are more likely to open up to one another. All tutees except 2 improved reading skills over the course of the study but those that studied with a tutor that was of their preferred sex (students were asked whom them preferred to learn from) improved more than those that didn’t have a tutor of their preferred sex. There was no significant effect of same-sex or different-sex tutoring nor was either sex a better tutor or tutee.
A couple factors collided to create my interest in this article. First, I was a tutor in high school and college (though mostly math and science) and the hardest thing was to find the best way to help a student. Reading was something that I was never particularly good at tutoring possibly because I didn’t really understand where my students were coming from. Also, recent popular news articles have been talking about the small budget allotments for special education and this is an approach that might help that situation. Studies have shown (though I don’t remember which ones) that sometimes peers are better at teaching some things because they remember how they learned it whereas an expert just knows the information and doesn’t have as good a handle on what might be problematic for a new learner and why.
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Posted in Cognitive, Information Processing, Annotated References - Class readings at 12:35 pm by youngsah
TIP.org: Information Processing Theory, George Miller.
This article gave a brief overview of George Miller’s most well known contributions to psychological theory. These are “chunking” and TOTE (Test-Operate-Test-Exit). The first relates mainly to working/short-term memory while the later has many applications.
Again, I’m teaching TE 150 this semester, we just covered chunking, and in undergrad I taught an intro psych lecture on memory so “chunking” is one of those concepts close to my heart. It is one of those things that are so simple that you don’t think about it until directed to.
Though I had not previously been formally introduced to TOTE it is a simple explanation of natural processes (behavioral or mental) so it is also intriguing in that kind of “huh, I never thought about that in that way before” kind of way. It reminded me of those step-by-step decision making models in elementary and middle school textbooks. The language of TOTE is different however. The decision making model was to be used to frame decision making in and was made from the inside looking out, while TOTE has the feeling in the language of someone from another field looking in.
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Posted in Cognitive, Information Processing, Annotated References - Class readings at 12:34 pm by youngsah
Miller, P. H. (1993). Information processing theory
This piece was an overview of information processing theory. The author covered some of the theory’s impact on psychology. It’s introduction of the mind as computer metaphor and how it looks at development (children as microcomputers?). Also, the author covered specific topics that information-processing theory tends to cover like memory and knowledge construction/organization. Also, the different approaches within information processing theory such as computer simulations were covered.
My first semi-formal introduction to this approach was in my Intro Psychology course in undergrad and my reintroduction (more formal this time) was in my Cognitive Psychology course. I didn’t realize that much of how we think of the memory system stems from this approach directly. It makes sense when you step back from it but it’s not something I’ve thought of before. I guess I just accepted the little boxes with arrows between them.
Near the middle of the end of this article I flashed back to my high school’s attempt to teach us computer programming (I was passable but not good at basic, if I remember right). It’s an interesting concept to try to duplicate human thinking through a computer simulation though it is problematic because you can get to the same processes in very different ways so I don’t know that it’s helpful.
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09.18.06
Posted in motivation, Annotated References - RDP readings at 2:45 pm by youngsah
Townsend, M.A.R., Moore, D.W., Tuck, B.F., and Wilton, K.M. (1998). Self-concept and anxiety in university students studying social science statistics. Educational Psychology. 18(1): p 41-60.
In this study, students enrolled in an educational psychology course were tested before and after the course on measures of mathematics self-concept and math anxiety. Females tend to have a lower math self-concept than females and math self-concept tends to decrease in college. During the course there were many cooperative learning opportunities including labs. Math anxiety lessened as the course went on (though not significantly) though those with advanced math experiences had overall lower math anxiety than those who had less advanced math. Math self-concept was lower at the beginning than the end and lower in those with less advanced math than those with advanced math. Generally, student’s liked the cooperative atmosphere of the class and lab sessions and said that they learned something even if they did not decrease their anxiety.
I was previously a math tutor (mainly algebra) so I am familiar with the phenomena of math anxiety and especially math self-concept. I am also a TA for an intro educational psychology course. I find the use of cooperative learning in math/statistics interesting because its most traditionally thought of in social science or English contexts. I had some experience of cooperative learning in math/statistics though in high school (at one point we even did some assignments where we were graded as a group or pair). I find it interesting but not surprising that math anxiety and self-concept are so hard to change. Usually a student has a long experience of encountering math by the time they get to college and 1 class that shows them different evidence about their math skills probably won’t change their mind.
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09.17.06
Posted in Academic Style, Annotated References - Class readings at 9:19 pm by youngsah
Becker, H. S. (1986). Freshman English for graduate students. In Writing for social scientists (pp. 1-25). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
This chapter discussed a class the author had taught about writing for grad students and others. Through various activities, he found that students often engaged in magical rituals and feared criticism of their writing. Also, in this chapter, the pattern of the 1 draft paper is described and criticized and students go through peer revisions.
I smiled at the passage describing the magical rituals. I don’t think I know anyone that doesn’t have them. For me it’s always been more about the mood or state I’m in than anything I’m doing in particular.
The reality of that passage reminds me of a scene in the movie Adaptation where the thought of a muffin distracts Charlie Kaufman (played by Nicholas Cage) from the writing process entirely.
Also, I do have a tendency to be a bit wordy in my writing (especially for school) so the section on editing down a paper section from 4 pages to ¾ of a page made me smirk a bit. It’s amazing sometimes that so much of what we say is just flowery filler.
Becker, H. S. (1986). Persona and authority. In Writing for social scientists (pp. 26-42). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
This chapter discussed a student’s conceptions of what scholarly writing was. This vignette was a lead in and helped describe what students (and some faculty) think that scholarly writing is. At one point, the student wrote a paper on what she thought “classy” writing was.
It’s interesting, in part because as I type this Microsoft word has tried to formalize my writing a bit. (“Also” was not good enough. It wanted me to use “In Addition”). I’ve always found it interesting that science is written one way for scientists/researchers and another for laypersons. Jargon and cant are things that are hard to avoid when talking to scientists/researchers but in addition to that, there are still differences.
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Posted in , Annotated References - Class readings at 4:28 pm by youngsah
Labaree, D. F. (2003). The peculiar problems of preparing educational researchers. Educational Researcher. 32(4). 13-22.
This article talked about preparing educational researchers. The article starts by talking about the reputation and general facts about the character of educational research touching on some of the limitations of such research. Then the Labaree focuses on the differences in worldview and purpose of teachers and educational researchers. Then the focus shifts to assimilating former or present teachers into the culture of educational research for the remainder of the article
This perspective is not one I’ve thought much about but I’ve been seeing some examples fleshed out in one of my other classes (CEP 930). The students have various backgrounds many of which include experience in teaching or education administration. There is a sense in that class that the student’s expected that educational research should and does lead to answers about how education should be practiced and improved. I feel many are unsatisfied with the reality. It’s not something that I’ve really considered much, possibly because of my lack of teaching experience. Research as something that leads to evidence rather than answers might be an unsatisfying answer but things in reality often are at least a little unsatisfying at their core.
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09.13.06
Posted in independent readings, Behaviorism, Annotated References - Class readings at 10:10 pm by youngsah
A Tale of Two Cities: Time Magazine May 15, 2006
This article compares approaches in teaching children with autism. One, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is based on behavorial theory. It focuses on repetitive drilling and rewards for completed tasks. Though early research on it’s effectiveness were promising recent research is inconclusive. An alternative approach DIR (developmental, individual-difference, relationship based) is also covered as a reporter visits schools using each approach. DIR, also called Floor time, focuses more on social skills. In practice, parents and educators are asked to get down on the child’s level and turn everyday tasks into social interactions for teaching.
Autism’s a funny thing. Psychologists don’t know what exactly causes it and they don’t know what the problem exactly is. There are lots of theories fo course but no definites. There’s also such a spectrum of disorder that one approach may be better for one type than another and we simply don’t recognize it because we lack the categories. A combination approach also might be more effective than either extreme approach with ABA being used for procedural skills and DIR being used for social skills
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Posted in Behaviorism, Annotated References - Class readings at 10:08 pm by youngsah
Educational Psychology on Wikipedia
The article gives a definition of Educational Psychology and how it may differ from School Psychology. The article gives a brief history of Educational Psychology as well as a list of “big names” in the field. It also talks about various topics (individual differences and disabilities, learning and cognition, and motivation) in the discipline and addresses the different theoretical perspectives. The article describes various qualitative and quantitative methods used within the field and also ways that knowledge gained through research can be applied to teaching and curriculum (“instructional design and technology”).
I found this article much more streamlined/sparse than the Greeno article for this week. In some ways that was good but it also made the article much less comprehensive. I found the history very sparse (probably because I’m taking the “Intellectual History of Educational Inquiry”). I thought the article focused on psychometrics, testing, and technologies a little more than it probably should have but that may be because the author is interested in educational technologies.
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Posted in Behaviorism, Annotated References - Class readings at 10:07 pm by youngsah
Skinner, B.F.: Why I am not a Cognitive Psychologist?
Skinner attacks many of the bases of Cognitive Psychology in this article. Some main points he includes are: that even if these concepts were real we could not measure them therefore it’s debatable whether it’s valuable to study them, that introspection is not a way to gain insight on the inner workings of the mind, that Cognitivists feel a need to use physical examples to explain their mental concepts, and his main point that things that cognitive psychologists think of as mental processes are in fact behaviors or can be explain as a combination or sequence of behaviors. He ends by saying that the cognitive perspective is a diversion from real scientific study and practice of psychology. Metacognition won’t change the work but thinking about and studying molding behaviors could.
I found the grammar/rule example quite funny/applicable because of my experiences in learning grammar and watching other’s attempts to learn it. So much of grammar is unconscious unless they are taught to make it conscious through things like explicitly learning grammar in English or a second language. So just because we don’t know that we know something does it mean that we don’t know it? I’m not surprised that Skinner acknowledged the existence of inner mental processes nor that he thinks they shouldn’t be studied. I’ve never really been one much for behaviorism. I understand the merit to studying things which are completely testable. However, it always seemed to deaden the human element for me. There is intuitively more to learning than stimulus response and though intuition/common sense is nothing to base science or conclusions on it can be a starting off point.
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Posted in Annotated References - Class readings at 10:05 pm by youngsah
Greeno, J.G. and Collins, A.M.: Cognition and Learning.
This was an overview of theoretical perspectives in Educational Research. The article focuses on the Behaviorist/Empiricist, Cognitive/Rationalist, and Situative/Pragmatist-Sociohistoric views and begins by defining what exactly each perspective entails. The authors then go on to describe how each perspective sees the nature of knowledge, the nature of learning and transfer, and the nature of motivation and engagement. They then go on to relating the perspectives to the classroom (what they call “Issues of Practical Conceptualization”) and finish up talking about the standing of each perspective and positing what their relation might be in the future.
The article was well organized. I thought a good starter reading to get a hold of the different theoretical perspectives in the field and how they affect how someone views education. I had previously been exposed to the cognitive vs. behaviorist divide but I don’t believe that I was exposed to the Situative/Pragmatist-Sociohistoric view until this year (except for brief and unremarkable exposure to Vygotsky). I currently have a very shallow appreciation of educational research since previously I’ve focused on more of a general psychology perspective and a more cognitive approach at that. However, this and my other classes should fix that. I liked how they finished up with a kind of theoretical applications section because it grounded my thoughts a bit on these theoretical perspectives and their effects.
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